Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2021)
The BulleTin • Sunday, auguST 1, 2021 A3 TODAY It’s Sunday, Aug. 1, the 213th day of 2021. There are 152 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: In 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps established an aeronau- tical division, the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force. In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the 38th state. In 1936, the Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler. In 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi oc- cupation; the revolt lasted two months before collapsing. In 1957, the United States and Canada announced they had agreed to create the North American Air Defense Com- mand (NORAD). In 1966, Charles Joseph Whit- man, 25, went on an armed ram- page at the University of Texas in Austin that killed 14 people, most of whom were shot by Whitman while he was perched in the clock tower of the main campus building. Whitman, who had also slain his wife and mother hours earlier, was finally gunned down by police. In 1971, the Concert for Ban- gladesh, organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, took place at New York’s Madison Square Garden. In 1975, a 35-nation summit in Finland concluded with the signing of a declaration known as the Helsinki Accords dealing with European security, human rights and East-West contacts. In 1977, former U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, working as a traffic reporter for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, was killed with his cam- eraman, George Spears, when their helicopter ran out of fuel and crashed; Powers was 47. In 1981, the rock music video channel MTV made its debut. In 2007, the eight-lane In- terstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people. In 2013, defying the United States, Russia granted Edward Snowden temporary asylum, allowing the National Security Agency leaker to slip out of the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for weeks. In 2014, a medical examiner ruled that a New York City police officer’s chokehold caused the death of Eric Garner, whose videotaped arrest and final pleas of “I can’t breathe!” had sparked outrage. Ten years ago: The U.S. House of Representatives passed, 269-161, emergency legislation to avert the nation’s first-ever financial default; Arizona Con- gresswoman Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House for the first time since being shot in Jan. 2011 to cast a “yes” vote. Five years ago: The United States launched multiple airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Libya, opening a new front against the group at the request of the United Nations-backed Libyan govern- ment. Vice President Joe Biden officiated a gay wedding, a first for the early proponent of same- sex marriage as he presided over the union of Joe Mahshie and Brian Mosteller, both longtime White House aides, at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washing- ton. One year ago: The coronavirus forced baseball’s 17th postpone- ment in 10 days, prompting at least two more players to opt out of playing during the short- ened season. Character actor Wilford Brimley, whose films included “Cocoon” and ‘The Natural,” died in a Utah hospital at 85. Today’s Birthdays: Singer Ram- blin’ Jack Elliott is 90. Former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., is 84. Actor Giancarlo Giannini is 79. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams is 71. Blues singer-musician Robert Cray is 68. Singer Michael Penn is 63. Rock singer Joe Elliott (Def Lep- pard) is 62. Rock singer-musician Suzi Gardner (L7) is 61. Rapper Chuck D (Public Enemy) is 61. Actor Jesse Borrego is 59. Ac- tor Demian Bichir is 58. Rapper Coolio is 58. Actor John Carroll Lynch is 58. Rock singer Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) is 57. Movie director Sam Mendes is 56. Country singer George Ducas is 55. Actor Jennifer Gareis is 51. Actor Charles Malik Whitfield is 49. Actor Tempestt Bledsoe is 48. Actor Jason Momoa is 42. Actor Honeysuckle Weeks is 42. Singer Ashley Parker Angel is 40. Actor Taylor Fry is 40. Actor Elijah Kel- ley is 35. — Associated Press Medicaid: COVID-19 ‘shined a light’ on disparities in access to care Continued from A1 Despite Central Oregon see- ing more than a 20% increase in health plan members com- pared to before the pandemic, it’s actually been easier for some agencies to help people get covered during the pan- demic. “So our traffic is down, but every person we get stays on (the plan) until the end of the pandemic,” said Sean McAn- ulty, who supervises a small team of insurance enrollment assisters with Mosaic Medical. McAnulty’s team helps Cen- tral Oregon residents figure out what low- or no-cost health insurance options are available to them. Now, the continuous enroll- ment rules have reduced their caseload by about half. The rules for showing proof of income were also relaxed, and the ability to work through applications over the phone has allowed Mosaic’s team to spend more time helping cli- ents actually use their coverage once they’re enrolled. “We’re providing a higher level of assistance as we have more time for each case,” McAnulty said. “There’s a lot of navigation after. Getting some- one benefits doesn’t mean they end up using them.” That means doing things like helping members set up their first appointments once Biden Continued from A1 The sudden eviction chaos, coupled with the pandem- ic’s comeback and Biden’s response, overshadowed a major achievement earlier in the week when the president sealed a bipartisan deal in the Senate for a $550 billion public works bill, one of his top pri- orities. House Democrats hurried Friday to try to assemble votes for a potential extension of the eviction ban, but the effort failed as lobbyists for landlords pressured lawmakers to let the moratorium expire. The cham- ber is now in recess and won’t return for votes until, possibly, late September. As the extension foundered, a round of finger-pointing en- sued between Democrats at the Capitol and in the White House. “Really, we only learned about this yesterday. Not re- ally enough time to socialize it within our caucus” and build consensus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “I quite frankly wish he’d asked us sooner” to extend the eviction moratorium, House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, a Massachu- setts Democrat, said Friday. A day earlier, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading progressive, called the White House’s handling of the moratorium’s expiration “reck- less and irresponsible.” A Supreme Court ruling at the end of June had made clear that the moratorium could not be extended beyond July 31 without congressional action. Biden on Friday evening pressured states and cities to speed up disbursal of emer- gency rental assistance funds. “Every state and local govern- ment must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can,” he said in a statement. The White House’s deputy press secretary, Karine Jean- Pierre, said Friday that “we’ve been having conversations with Congress for some time” about extending the eviction ban, in defense of Biden’s 11th- hour request. She declined to be more specific. Jean-Pierre said in response to Ocasio-Cortez that “I dis- agree” and that the administra- tion had been working on im- plementing a $47 billion rental assistance program. “Just last month we saw $1.5 billion in just one month in rental assistance, which was more than the last five months,” she said. “So we have been working really hard in a whole of government approach that we do here at this White House and this administration and we’ll continue to do that.” Biden’s stumbles on delta and the eviction moratorium they’re covered. Changes on horizon Once the pandemic ends — or, at least, the federal gov- ernment’s public health emer- gency declaration expires — the pandemic eligibility rules go away. That means the state will again begin reevaluating the eligibility of those on the plan, and anyone whose income has risen above the Medicaid threshold since they got on the plan or who hasn’t kept up with their paperwork will re- ceive a notice that their cover- age could expire. “Whenever there’s going to be something like this, there’s always going to be people who echo the White House’s diffi- culty responding to rising in- flation. The phenomenon, vir- tually a non-issue in American politics for decades, has bedev- iled the president’s economic agenda and given Republicans a line of attack for midterm elections next year. White House officials have monitored the delta variant for weeks but were surprised by the extent of its spread, accord- ing to a senior White House official. That prompted the ur- gent warning on the eviction ban as well as the U.S. Cen- ter for Disease Control and Prevention’s reimposition of a masking recommendation and Biden’s speech imploring millions of Americans who have refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to get their shots. The ban on evictions expired end of day Saturday. “Even though the Biden administration has been well aware of the calendar, it was not until yesterday that the president requested the Con- gress to act,” Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said Friday. “Now, we are being asked to take emergency action to kick the can down the road yet again.” Biden’s rushed moves stand in contrast to his actions during the first few months Central Oregon’s source for events, arts & entertainment Pick up Thursday’s Bulletin for weekly event coverage and calendars fall off,” McAnulty said. “This is why we’re here, is to help people navigate that.” Since the change is depen- dent on the federal declaration, precise timelines aren’t yet set in stone. Projections from the Oregon Health Authority sug- gest the declaration will likely expire in January 2022, and re-enrollment eligibility will be determined over the next six months . An estimated 200,000 mem- bers statewide will lose their coverage when rules change. Some of those people will be losing coverage because they’re no longer eligible, such as if they returned to their jobs and now make more than the in- come requirement. of the administration, when he and his advisers sought to demonstrate steady command of the fight against the pan- demic and draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump’s approach. That strategy allowed Biden to claim credit for progress made against the virus, while casting blame for any short- comings on Trump. But more than six months into his presi- dency, Americans appear to be pointing the finger at Biden for the continuing crisis — a grow- ing political problem for the president. A Gallup poll released last week showed Biden’s approval rating falling to 50% from 56% in June. His ratings among Democrats and independents were their lowest to date, with less than half of independents saying they approve of his job performance. But many will be part of what Lori Coyner, Oregon’s former Medicaid director, calls the “churn population,” those who frequently are off-and-on with the state’s insurance policy as their incomes fluctuate or they miss their paperwork. That churn, all but elimi- nated by the pandemic’s enroll- ment rules, makes it harder for people to access the health care they might be eligible for. “We do know that when peo- ple stay on, they keep their doc- tors, they keep their providers, where to get their prescriptions filled and all of that,” Coyner said. “When they drop off and then come back on, they have to re-establish all of that.” Pandemic’s impact could be here to stay Coyner’s goal now is to avoid some of those on-and-off re- lationships by making some of the pandemic’s lessons per- manent fixtures of the Oregon Health Plan. It’s a perfect time: The state’s renegotiating its five-year agreement with the federal government laying out exactly how Medicaid in the state will operate outside of typical fed- eral rules. Coyner, now a policy advi- sor heavily involved in design- ing the agreement, said the state hopes to make permanent the pandemic provisions re- ducing how often people have to reapply and reducing the amount of financial paperwork they have to submit. “We learned that it’s much faster for people to apply and get their application in, and then we can do the income verification later instead of having to have them get a check stub right at the front end,” Coyner said. Those changes to the plan still have to be approved by the federal agency that oversees Medicaid, and wouldn’t be fi- nalized until the new agree- ment takes effect next summer. Aside from all the technical hoops temporary rules may have eliminated, the pandemic “shined a light” on disparities in access to care, added Dana Hittle, now the state’s interim Medicaid director. “For all of the flexibilities, or a good number of the flexibilities, that we were able to put into place because of the pandemic that we want to continue,” Hit- tle said, “the goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to have access to health care and remove those barriers.” e Reporter: zdemars@bendbulletin.com TODAY’S NUMBER BROUGHT TO YOU BY: G52 8/1/2021 PLAY FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN $1,000! No purchase necessary. See complete details at bendbulletin.com
